Paprika!

Cyberculture in Realtime

            This new culture of cyberculture is emerging from your own computer screen. Cyberculture is growing by the minute. With new computer networks that are design for communication entertainment or even business, that gives us a chance to float in the world cyberspace.  The anticipation of the future, this new world that we have created is self-contained and is helping us connect to people all around the world.

 A.M. Hilton wrote "In the era of cyberculture, all the plows pull themselves and the fried chickens fly right onto our plates." However it will allow you to blog, social network, online gaming, chat, online shopping and even cybersex. This is a world that is like a tool, depending on how you use it. Cyberculture is a wide social and cultural movement that is inked by science and technology

Video Games as Narratives

Video games has grown in the past 50 years. The consumers are now into the story aspect of the game. Video games may not work as traditional narratives, but they incorporate all the basic elements of storytelling. However not all game can have a story due to the extensive amount of different genres of games out there. Video games are a new form of make believe that can be seen with the eye. What a book lacks a video game has. It can give you a world that you can react in and the best part you don'w have to move. But I don’t think it is the most effective medium to tell stories. The creators of the hottest games are trying to think outside the boxes when it comes to the theme/story. How to make games more interactive? Combining both story and game play in their development. This is important due to the nature us human are. We as players must become completely absorbed in the fate and lives of the fictional characters on screen.

            Literature is a big part of human civilization it is a way to help instructed inform and you can even feel the tone or mood by just reading text. Applying this form of intelligent to a video game isn’t so easy. The standard model for storytelling in video games is based upon having the player complete a set of goals and then playing a cutscene which advances the plot. This has to be carefully thought out. Take the game Bioshock for example offers a different, more interesting solution. The game features very few cutscenes, and those that are present take place at points in the narrative at which the player would not be in control anyway. The most notable comes perhaps two thirds into the game, when the protagonist meets Andrew Ryan. It is here that the player learns that he is a genetically engineered puppet programmed to obey any command given Ryan orders the player to kill him. There are also different task to do that involves reading.

            I’m not saying that in the future video games will come close in replacing literature. It’s just evolving into a new type of narrative that the developers of these new games will need to approach their narratives differently. 

Enter the world of Asterios Polyp.

Asterios Polyp is a graphic novel with a modernism feel in the artwork. The well Know comic writer David Mazzucchelli, Wrote this book, which took him a decade to write. He designs this unique book with cool visual techniques that stood out to me. He made the exploration of this new style of art/ literature. With different fonts and colors for each character which I enjoyed this stylized approach and with out the need for black ink. (Mine blowing) With the story and all the details that David has put in the book I would recommend it to any artist and is great for any graphic designers.

The story line is a satirical comedy of remarriage. Asterios Polyp is an architect that is extremely intelligent and logical, as well as extremely conceited. His life is falling apart. With the divorce of his wife Hana and the lost of his house due to lightning. Moving to the middle of no were he try’s to find himself in a town named apogee and ends up getting a job at a auto shop. When the story line settles down, flash backs of his life begins. They were about his wife witch is a sculpture/artist and his twin brother, who died in the womb but keeps appearing in the story. The characters have discussions about different topics (religion, political history). Each chapter opens with an introduction that helps introduce its next theme and serves as the begging of its narrative. The book has plenty of allusions that are interesting. With the shifting perspectives and 3D lines. To tell you the truth I thought the gestural artwork was weird until I started reading its language. This it makes it a fun book to read.